HAPPY 2014 GUYS!! I can't believe it's another year. It's so weird to think about. I'm so excited about the prospects this year brings both in life, and in books! It's also fun to think back on the awesome that was 2013!

I read 64 books last year, which is not my best but still awesome! I've been wanting to do this post for a while to tell you about all the amazing books I've read! Sooo here's my

TOP 13 of 2013!

Disclaimer: I read quite a few books that weren't published in 2013 those I haven't limited this to books released in 2013. It's just anything I've read this year, including some mind-blowing upcoming 2014 books!

Let The Sky Fall

for it's interesting premise, fantastic world building and the swoon factor

The Program

for being the kind of book that engrossed me so much it read in a day

The Distance Between Us

for the witty characters who made me laugh

Steelheart

for blowing my brain and making me think as much as every other Sanderson book

Scarlet

for all the feels

Cress

for blowing my mind with even more feels

Deception

for realistic characters who stayed strong in the face of a crazy plot

Starling

for the beautiful end to this beautiful trilogy

The Rules

for giving me a thrill

Hates List

for making me think about things

Ender's Game

for making me think even more

Smart Girls Get What They Want

for making me laugh when I needed it

Midnight in Austenland

for being the funnest book ever

And this it for me! I have so many other favorites of the year that chances are there will be yet another post tomorrow sharing them. Happy new year!! XOXO,

Eee! It's December 25th! Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful people! To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas I hope you have/had a wonderful holiday season as you spend time with family and friends!!! You guys are so AWESOME. I can't believe it's almost 2014 which will bring my 3rd blogoversay! I've been doing this for so long now it's CRAZZZZZY! But undoubtedly the best part has been interacting and having so much fun with you guys! You make blogging worth it! So have an amazing holiday!

Speaking of blogging, I apologize for the lack of posts lately! This has been the busiest season for me yet! Filled with activities, bajillions of choir performances, and a little sickness, Christmas has seriously snuck up on me! I'm so glad to have a day or two to sit down and sleep!! I hope you have a beautiful morning (snow filled or not) to snuggle in pajamas! Nothing beats sitting around a dying tree pulling presents out of socks!

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one.But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young. Most of the chosen do.

I’ve always loved a good fantasy! That’s why it surprised me
it took me so long to pick up The Girl of Fire and Thorns and sequels. But I
finally did and having recently finished the trilogy I decided to bring you my
collective thoughts in one post. (cheap blogger) Some call this the “Game of
Thrones for YA”, but I call it “Hectorific.” Because that is what I think of
when I think of these books. [More on that later.]

Note: My thoughts
will proceed somewhat in order of novels, but there will be mild spoilers
attached. You have been warned.

Book one starts off with a kick. Princess married in secret…shipped
off to be secret bride queen. Oh and don’t forget she’s the Chosen One of the
century. And does our heroine want this role? Nonsense! Who wants to be a hero?
Since when is that cool? Elisa, Elisa, Elisa. Where do I begin with you. We’ve
had a bit of a love-hate relationship you and I. See, in book one you kinda
annoyed the crap out of me. In book two, I tolerated you more because Hector
was on the scene, and in book three, we formed a truce of peace. By the end we
were friends…I think.

In book one we see her start as a shy timid, but very
thoughtful kind of a character. She was interesting, but I didn’t connect with
her. We know she’s pudgy and not the skinniest girl on the block. Oh we know
alright. It was constantly in the back of Elisa’s brain, making in the back
of the readers. That’s probably what annoyed the most. Her belittling and annoyance of herself. What made me laugh
was her awe at the change in her body (in size and fitness) after walking
across the freaking desert. Haha. However, she did have some great moments in thinking,
and character. She just didn’t resonate with me.

But before you go and thing she’s just mediocre, let me
assure Elisa has her brilliant moments. For example, her tactical genius. Her
brain grows up so much in Crown of Embers and The Bitter Kingdom and this is
where I started to appreciate her so much more. She gains this layer of smarts
and I loved the council scenes and watching her take charge. This was when she
rocked and made me feel like she earned her right to Hector.

Now, in book one we’re introduced to a romantic interest,
Humberto. Because I already knew darling Hector would be the main love
interest, I didn’t care much for Humberto. It was pointless in a way. Now I did have that foresight, and that might
have been what dragged this down for me, but that pretty much led to me no
caring so much for this book because I wanted all the Hector we could get in
book two.

Boy did we ever. Oh mama, Hector was probably THE highlight
of Crown of Embers. Can he do any wrong? NO! Can he be wronged? *glares at Elisa* I just loved this book
for the moments of Hector. He’s strong, smart, handsome, and he can FIGHT. He’s
so loyal to those who are under his care, and those he cares about. It was honestly
in this book, while Elisa was still growing in brains and character that I fell
for him. He deserves Elisa, of that I have no doubt, but I wasn’t sure she
deserved him. Esepescially since the romantic switch between books was somewhat
sudden. I wasn’t sure I liked how COE ended in regards to that. [If you know
what I am talking about here.]So going into The Bitter Kingdom, I was very
hesitant because I still wasn’t on the Elisa train. Not to mention something else
still had to win me over.

My other main issue with these books was the world building.
It was interesting and we had a neat plot/set up going on, but I was so often
lost and confused and bored by it all. Gimme a break. All these things and
names of peoples and places to remember…it just wasn’t for me.

We didn’t click.
Here it was there, next minute it was gone. Are they good or are they bad?
Wait, how are they connected again? What’s this country/community/badguy?
Straighten out this lore, connect these dots. These questions basically made up
my lack of interest and connection to the world, which was nice I suppose but
not something I cared about. I found myself skimming political and explanatory
parts, wanting it all giving to me and wanting to just know the outcome. (mainly
in the last book). It’s a shame, but true.

My main drive eventually became Hector. He was such a great
character in Crown of Embers that I just wanted his happy ending! Basically it
took me two weeks to read The Bitter Kingdom, for lack of me wanting to read
everything. I kind of had to make myself read it through to the end. *spoiler*But the ending did come and Hector got his HEA and
Elisa became a freaking Empress and it’s all happiness and gumdrops. Huzzah,
end of the book!

To conclude, this trilogy was enjoyable to a point and then
the rest of it was boring or annoying. Basically Hector wins all. Elisa had her
moments of tactical genius and there were elements of action and fantasy I did
appreciate. The rest was mediocre. But if you like fantasy, don’t just take my
bored word for it. Try this book! Read other more positive reviews. Who
knows, you may love these books and come back to curse me for ever disliking
them. What? It could happen.

Series Rating: 3 Stars

Phew! My thoughts have left me without words.Your turn now! What do you think? Merry Christmas Eve!

Hey guys!!! So, today I'm doing something a little different. My Nator Twin Jessi has begun a new meme on her blog called Life of a Blogger, discussing aspects of our lives outside of books! Today's topic is Your Career, and since I've been thinking a lot about that lately, I thought it would be fun to do a post about it!

In The Present:

Because I have a high school student, and a minor I don't really have much of a job yet. I have done quite a bit of babysitting for the past four years that was my main source of income. I still do that, and have a few families I love, but recently I took on the venture of teaching beginner piano lessons. I have 5 weekly students with a couple sets of siblings who I teach. This is a lot more stable than the occasional babysitting, and it's a very interesting experience for me! Espescially dealing with the business aspect, since I do it myself.

If I did get a job outside of these, I have two that I really want to try and apply for next year since I am old enough now to do so. First, I'd love to work as a tour guide at the Winchester Mystery House, which is down the street from me and would be the FUNNEST JOB EVER. It's such a crazy and cool house, and it would match my love of history so much!! Plus, they hire minors! For tours? I hope so!

My second teen dream job would be this adorable indie book store also somewhat close that I LOVE called Hicklebee's(Mentioned it in THIS post!). I've been there a few times for events and just to shop with my friends. It's so funky and it's run by these sweet older ladies who love books. Plus it's an awesome bookstore. Um HELLO.

In The Future..

Being a junior in High School, a lot of thought has gone into what I want to do in the future, and while I've always wanted to be an author, but lately that tune has changed just a tad. For a while I opened up to more aspects of publishing, such as becoming a Literary Agent, Editor or even Marketor. All would be so fun and encompass my love of books and interest in the publishing industry that I'd developed because of my blogging. Who wouldn't want to work with books all the time?

And while I still want to be published some day, I've come the conclusion that I want to pursue Editting as a career. I love to discuss and analyze books and think from a writer perspective what I can do with that. It's been interesting to beta read for others and really think about how to make books better, including in my own writing. It's FUN for me and I would love to be able to join a publishing company as an editor for YA. Since being in New York City I can totally picture myself in one of those huge publishing offices on the island. HOLLA! I'm currently doing research into the kinds of things needed for these job so we'll see where I end up!

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! It's been quite a while since I've done this, but I loved this week's topic and just had to join in

Today's topic is the Top Ten Books you are dying for in 2014. Because it is called Top Ten Tuesday, you will find my top ten list below. However because we're also talking about the whole freaking YEAR, it's not entirely possible to only pick ten. Yay for honorable mentions!!

It's Paula Stokes. (Aka Fiona Paul) It's the most adorable sounding contemporary ever. I wants it. Not to mention, when the author keeps telling you that you look like the cover model...it ups the excitement.

Uuuuh, twisted Oz? Yes. I love when retellings take the dark twisted path of a well-known story (such as Splintered) So excited to see where this goes!!! Not to mention the prequel novella was UH-MAZE-ING!

EEEEEEE! A, the cover. B, the title, C, THE FREAKING PREMISE. Again, it's historical so there really shouldn't be any explanation necessary, but this book is also set in WW2!! I'm like obsessed with WW2 fic right now. GIMME.

Well those are my top 18!! Haha. If you made a TTT post leave a link in the comments so I can come flail with you! So excited for all the yummy 2014 goodness to come my way! Know of any good books coming out in these categories that I didn't mention? I'd love to hear some recs to add to my growing TBR. XOXO,